{"id":1992,"date":"2023-09-18T14:43:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-18T18:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/?p=1992"},"modified":"2023-09-18T14:43:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T18:43:44","slug":"the-story-of-a-biologist-from-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/eternal-1992-the-story-of-a-biologist-from-philadelphia","title":{"rendered":"The story of a biologist from Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joseph Leidy is a famous American biologist who was born in the City of Brotherly Love. The scientist taught at the local higher education institution. He was also engaged in research on rare species of prehistoric creatures and parasites of our continent. Read more about the life story and career of the biologist on philadelphia.name<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How did he become a biologist?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Leidy was born on September 9, 1823 in Philadelphia. Long before he was born, the future scientist’s family emigrated from Europe in search of a better life. His father made a living by sewing and selling hats. His mother, Catharine, died during childbirth. Therefore, Joseph was raised by his mother’s sister and his father, who would later marry Christiana Mellick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little Joseph’s father dreamed that he would paint pictures. However, the boy had another intention. He was interested in medicine. Maybe, the boy’s interests were influenced by the tragic fate of his mother. The only person who supported the young man’s dream was his stepmother. Thanks to her request, the boy entered a medical school in the city and later obtained a doctor of medicine degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was hired by his Alma mater, where he worked as a professor and taught anatomy. In 1864, a private liberal arts university was opened in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. The college from the eponymous city was a structural unit of the educational institution, where Joseph already worked. Thus, he also taught natural science at that university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph devoted all his free time to work. He even met his future wife as a result of a joint activity. They were engaged in research on historical creatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An upset happened in their happy marriage when they found out that the wife could not get pregnant. Later, they took a 7-year-old girl from the orphanage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 30, 1891, a talented Philadelphia biologist and paleontologist died in his hometown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What is Joseph Leidy remembered for?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During his professional activity, the researcher created more than five hundred scientific works in paleontology, parasitology, microbiology, anatomy and mineralogy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1869, he published a book entitled The Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska. There he characterized many fossil species that no one had previously explored in North America. Later, the scientist published a work on freshwater rhizomes of the above-mentioned continent. The book is quite popular even nowadays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, Joseph Leidy was the first to examine a specimen of a prehistoric creature \u2014 a hadrosaurus. During the work, the Philadelphia biologist concluded, contrary to the prevailing opinion at the time, that the dinosaur could walk on two legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He owned the patent Bison antiquus. It was the ancestor of the modern American bison, which existed on the territory of the American continent eight thousand years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, he was a fan of the creativity of Charles Darwin. He was glad when the latter was invited to the Academy of Natural Sciences in our region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He achieved the greatest success in the field of forensic medical examination. In the second half of the seventeenth century, he became the first to find a murderer thanks to a microscope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essence of the story was that, unexpectedly for the townspeople, the owner of the local farm was killed. Later, they found a person with blood on his clothes and ax. The suspect swore that the blood belonged to farm chickens that the man had recently killed. Even though the policemen of that time were not vegetarians, they were more inclined to arrest that person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph Leidy helped to establish justice through the microscope. He did not find any nuclei in the red blood cells. This indicated that the blood belonged to a human being or a mammal. It is known that chicken erythrocytes outside the body can store nuclei for several hours. This confused the investigation a little but the biologist concluded that the blood stains could not belong to a chicken but only to a mammal (in particular, a human). Later, the person who was considered the murderer confessed to the crime committed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joseph Leidy is a famous American biologist who was born in the City of Brotherly Love. The scientist taught at the local higher education institution. He was also engaged in research on rare species of prehistoric creatures and parasites of our continent. Read more about the life story and career of the biologist on philadelphia.name. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":310,"featured_media":1748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[812,810,809,813,807,805,811,808,804,806],"moimportance":[30,33],"motype":[325],"moformat":[18],"class_list":{"0":"post-1992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-developments","8":"tag-a-doctor-of-medicine-degree","9":"tag-a-talented-philadelphia-biologist-and-paleontologist-died-in-his-hometown","10":"tag-career-of-the-biologist","11":"tag-he-owned-the-patent-bison-antiquus","12":"tag-joseph-leidy-helped-to-establish-justice-through-the-microscope-he-did-not-find-any-nuclei-in-the-red-blood-cells","13":"tag-joseph-leidy-is-a-famous-american-biologist-who-was-born-in-the-city-of-brotherly-love","14":"tag-the-college-from-the-eponymous-city-was-a-structural-unit-of-the-educational-institution","15":"tag-the-scientist-taught-at-the-local-higher-education-institution","16":"tag-the-story-of-a-biologist-from-philadelphia","17":"tag-what-is-joseph-leidy-remembered-for","18":"moimportance-golovna-novyna","19":"moimportance-retranslyacziya-v-agregatory","20":"motype-eternal","21":"moformat-vlasna"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1993,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions\/1993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philadelphia.name\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=1992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}